Can I Use PIVOT / Cross Tab For This? If Not...?

I have the following data structure (simplified)


declare @log table (
date smalldatetime,
category char(3),
value1 int,
value2 int)

insert into @log(date, category, value1, value2)
select '2008-01-01', 'ABC', 11,12 union all
select '2008-01-02', 'ABC', 35,53 union all
select '2008-01-03', 'ABC', 38,62 union all
select '2008-01-05', 'ABC', 59,95 union all
select '2008-01-02', 'XYZ', 42,21 union all
select '2008-01-04', 'XYZ', 9,7 union all
select '2008-01-05', 'XYZ', 89,45 union all
select '2008-01-01', 'HHH', 70,52 union all
select '2008-01-03', 'HHH', 3,83 union all
select '2008-01-05', 'HHH', 26,77


where
1) date is always up to the day (no time variation)
2) date and category can be considered a composite unique key

Given a date range (let's say, from 2008-01-01 to 2008-01-05) I need to get the below:

date abc_value1 abc_value2 xyz_value1 xyz_value2 hhh_value1 hhh_value2
---------- ----------- ----------- ----------- ----------- ----------- -----------
01/01/2008 11 12 NULL NULL 70 52
01/02/2008 35 53 42 21 NULL NULL
01/03/2008 38 62 NULL NULL 3 83
01/04/2008 NULL NULL 9 7 NULL NULL
01/05/2008 59 95 89 45 26 77

Ideally, the results include
- every day in the date range (even if there is no corresponding data for that date)
- the columns values to be dependent on the categories found within the date range

I came up with this

-- to fulfill requirement "every day in the date range"
declare @dt table (d smalldatetime)
insert into @dt
select '2008-01-01' union all
select '2008-01-02' union all
select '2008-01-03' union all
select '2008-01-04' union all
select '2008-01-05'

-- to fulfill display all the categories (manually determined)
select convert(varchar(10),d,101) as date,
abc.value1 as abc_value1, abc.value2 as abc_value2,
xyz.value1 as xyz_value1, xyz.value2 as xyz_value2,
hhh.value1 as hhh_value1, hhh.value2 as hhh_value2
from @dt dt
left join @log abc on dt.d = abc.date and abc.category = 'ABC'
left join @log xyz on dt.d = xyz.date and xyz.category = 'XYZ'
left join @log hhh on dt.d = hhh.date and hhh.category = 'HHH'


just for the purpose of generating the end result example, but in a real life situation, both the date range and the categories that may fall within that date range... are dynamic. To make my head spin even more, I also suspect the issue of value2 AND value3 being pulled is making this one complicated statement.

Any ideas? Thoughts? Suggestions?